Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

Editorial

Research for peace and conflict resolution and transformation studies have long insisted on the importance of communication in the dynamics of conflicts and their resolution, in both their violent phase and at the point when the emphasis is placed on negotiations to obtain a ceasefire or the implementation of agreements and the construction of peace in the medium and long term. In addition, the crucial role of the new information and communication technologies in conflict resolution, and that of the global network of electronic communications and social networks in particular in the era of globalisation and cybertechnology, has also recently been stressed. Hence the importance of devoting the central topic of this issue to an in-depth review of the subject - the relationship between war, peace and communication. And hence some of the thoughts below.

Interview with Gervasio Sánchez

The victims of landmines were the subject of his first major project. People missing in conflicts and the suffering of their families has been the second, in a project that took him to Latin America, Asia and Europe. "Missing" is being exhibited in three different venues in Spain: there are 250 photographs, many of which are large format, showing torture chambers, prisons, and above all, people; people who in many cases have spent decades looking for their relatives. But Gervasio Sanchez (born Cordoba, 1959), a journalist with the Heraldo de Aragón newspaper, also works on everyday news, and writes down his impressions in his blog “Los desastres de la guerra” [The Disasters of War] (http://blogs.heraldo.es/gervasiosanchez/)

Education for peace and listening

Agreeing with Osama

Amnesty International Report 2011: The state of human rights in the world

http://www.amnesty.org/es/annual-report/2011

Amnesty International has published its annual report on the situation of human rights worldwide, the result of research in 157 countries and territories in 2010.

United States Peace Index

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/

The United States Peace Index (USPI), created by the Institute for Economics and Peace is an innovative tool that shows the level of peace in each of the 50 states of the USA, based on five key indicators: the number of homicides, the number of violent crimes, the number of police officers, the number of convicts, and the ease access to small arms and light weapons.